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Talk:Hypoperfusion

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I'm

[edit]

I'm an EMT-B and an AEMT student. I have intimate knowledge on this topic.

Hypoperfusion redirects to Ischemia but it's more factual to say that Ischemia is a final-stage result of certain instances of hypoperfusion.

To define: Perfusion is the exchange of gasses at both the alveolar and cellular levels. Every living cell needs adequate Oxygen for aerobic metabolism and normal functioning. You are properly perfused when you are breathing room-air (21% Oxygen), the air is reaching your alveoli in your lungs, passing into capillary beds, attaching itself to you hemoglobin (while at the same time, hemoglobin is off-loading Carbon Dioxide into the alveoli for expulsion from the lungs upon exhalation), the Oxygen then travels through your circulatory system and reaches every living cell in the body. At the same time your blood's hemoglobin is off-loading the Oxygen to cells, it is picking up CO2 again and repeating the cycle. When there are no hindrances to this process, you are well-perfused.

Hypoperfusion is when your body is in a state of not completing this process unhindered. There are several reasons why this could occur: airway obstruction is one. No O2 coming in means no O2 perfusing throughout the body. Neurogenic shock (you suffer a spinal cord injury and the circulatory system of your body below the severed cord no longer communicates with baroreceptors which help regulate blood pressure and systemic vascular resistance) can be another cause. Hypothermia can cause hypoperfusion to an extremity which can result in ischemia in that part of the extremity which was hypoperfused. Ishemia is cell and tissue death resulting from hypoperfusion.

Hypoperfusion, literally, is shock.

I am not 100% clear on what the different lexiconography is among other levels of the medical community so I prefer to open this discussion before making any changes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.201.216.23 (talkcontribs) 20:01, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]


  • Thank you for the note, 207.201.216.23. --Envisaging tier (talk) 09:39, 25 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  • I personally think that shock is a medical emergency while ischemia might not be a medical emergency unless it is prolonged. A) So is hypoperfusion a medical emergency? B) Prolonged shock leads to death while prolonged hypoperfusion of a local tissue doesn't kill a person but the hypoperfused tissue. Therefore, I think hypoperfusion is better redirected to ischemia. --Envisaging tier (talk) 10:44, 25 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    • I could be wrong, but I had the impression that shock was the collapse of the entire circulatory system, whereas ischemia ("blockage") and hypoperfusion ("not enough oxygen around here") could be local. WhatamIdoing (talk) 06:18, 26 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
as an example, in terms of ocular hypoperfusion--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 03:15, 27 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]